Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!sri-unix!Leban%hp-labs.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa From: Leban%hp-labs.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Matter Transmission Message-ID: <12849@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Fri, 24-Aug-84 11:17:01 EDT Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.12849 Posted: Fri Aug 24 11:17:01 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 30-Aug-84 19:47:21 EDT Lines: 31 From: Bruce Matter transmission can quite possibly be accomplished without technology remotely resembling that required for replication. Aside from the psi-based (i.e., magic) teleportation of Null-A, there is a possible quantum mechanical explanation. As Scotty (aka James Blish) explains in /Spock Must Die!/: "What the transporter does is analyze the energy /state/ of each particle in the body and then produce a Dirac jump to an equivalent state somewhere else. No conversion is involved -- if there were, we'd blow up the ship." (p. 3) An alternative explanation relies on the same principle whereby black holes can be used to create TV sets. What you think is your body is only a collection of probabilities. We simply (!) build a machine that makes it much more probable that your body is someplace else and presto! you're there. The Infinite Improbability Drive in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is in all "probability" based on exactly this principle. There is also the question of whether it's really "you" when you get to the other end. Well, if you look at it the right way, you're really staying still while the rest of the universe has been moved. (Einstein said we could look at it this way.) So you really are still "you". As for the rest of the universe... -------------- P.S. Is there any basis to the rumor that ST IV will be called STAR TREK IV: The Wrath of Spock ?? ------- -------